{mosimage}Toy Guru and the gang at Mattel are back with the latest round of answers to all of your queries. There are some juicy tidbits this time around so read on for the full scoop.
1. Would Mattel consider a specialty market assortment of each DCUC series with a heavier weight of classic characters? For example, for series 2, perhaps making the Ronnie Raymond Firestorm the standard figure over Jason Rusch?
We are actually looking into this now! After feedback from fans and retail partners at Toy Fair we are doing our best to adjust case packs to meet the needs of all our customers.
2. What can we expect to see on the shelves in January (and into 2008) in terms of overall Mattel/DC presence? Are you building to have a "block" of the aisle full of various new DC lines?
In January you can expect to see the new 6” DCUC figures as well as the 2” Fighting Figures assortment. The Fighting Figures come in two packs of a hero vs. a villain. Each figure has an action feature such as a shooting projectile or a launching weapon. You will also see carry forward product such as the JLU line. For Spring of 08 you will see reissues of harder to find JLU singles and previously unreleased JLU 3-packs (Fire and Ice, Mr Miracle, etc…) New lines will be added throughout 2008 with many surprises for the fall.
3. Have you seen the results of the DCUC Top Ten? Can you comment on the likelihood or strong aspects of each character that would make them good candidates for the DCUC line?
1. Green Arrow
2. Flash (Wally West)
3. Wonder Woman
4. Martian Manhunter
5. Hawkman
6. Blue Beetle (Ted Kord)
7. Black Canary
8. Dr. Fate
9. Captain Marvel
10. Black Adam
Every single one of these figures is a good candidate. We are still working out some legal issues with the Charleton characters, but that is pretty much the only issues holding any of these figures back. Based on current fan interest in the line we will likely get to all of these popular characters in the near future.
4. From an organization standpoint with character selection, can you tell us what characters are considered "A-list" and would be able to anchor an assortment of DCUC figures. We know Batman and Superman, but what about Green Lantern, Flash, Wonder Woman, Green Arrow, etc.?
All of the main heroes of the JLU are pretty much “A” list characters as far as our unofficial internal character selection process. B list characters are more like Dr. Fate, Mr. Terrific, Black Canary. C list character would be people like Steel, Orion, Dead Shot, and fan favorites would be characters like Etrigan, Kamandi, Blue Devil, etc…
Honestly, there is no set rule, but as far as the “A” list anchor characters, we look at Superman, Wonder Woman, Batman, Green Arrow, Green Lantern(s), Shazam, Flash, Hawkman, Aquaman and Martian Manhunter as good core characters to anchor a line.
5. In reguards to the last round of answers pertaining to the re-adjustment of variant figure distribution, can you shed a little more light? Are variants that are different characters (like the Firestorm and Aquaman variants) going to be weighted 50/50 now? We know that a different facial expression or costume change might not be weighted so high, but it is important to the collector community to be able to get ALL the UNIQUE characters in the line.
Every variant is treated differently. The ratio is determined by two things, primarily by the manufacturing process. Because of the method that figures are tooled (some figures share molds) we are locked into a certain ratio. Decos are much easier to adjust. We are going to do our best to rev up production of Firestorm Classic to meet fan demand.
A big thanks to Toy Guru and Mattel for this latest round of answers. Be sure to submit you questions for the next round (December 15th) by November 15th.
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